1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to resource allocation for communication systems, and in particular to resource stealing within communication systems. Still more particularly, present invention relates to allocation of resources in communication systems with resource stealing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In cellular technologies, uplink bandwidth is assigned by the scheduler at the Base Station (BS) on a per mobile station (MS) basis. Typically, the scheduler allocates uplink bandwidth (UL BW) using over the air (OTA) signaling to various mobile stations (MSs) based on the connections the mobile stations have established. A particular MS may have multiple uplink connections, and depending on the parameters of each connection, the MS will receive uplink bandwidth assignments/allocations for each of the connections. However, even though the decision to allocate bandwidth to a specific MS is related to the requirements of a specific uplink connection, the bandwidth allocation in some technologies is given generally to the MS, as a whole, and not on a per connection basis. That is, the over the air (OTA) signaling provides no indication of which connection each uplink bandwidth allocation is intended for, and the MS can utilize the bandwidth allocation in any way desired by the MS. The mobile station is thus able to and may occasionally utilize the bandwidth for a purpose different than what the scheduler intended. For example, the MS may occasionally utilize bandwidth allocated for uplink data to transmit other type of information, e.g., control messages. The uplink data allocation may then be utilized to send (1) data for the intended connection, (2) data for another connection, (3) a control message, or (4) a combination of 1 through 3.
This process of re-assigning bandwidth to a transmission that is different than what the bandwidth was intended for is referred to herein as bandwidth “stealing”. As is known in the art, bandwidth stealing behavior occurs within the context of the 802.16e (and 802.16d) standards (commonly referred to in the industry as WiMAX). However, stealing of resources is not limited to WiMAX communication systems, and such stealing may also occur in other communication systems with a resource scheduler coordinating scheduling of limited resource to a plurality of communicating entities/devices.
When bandwidth is stolen, bandwidth for the intended application (data transmission) is lost. This loss of bandwidth may be justified in some instances, such as when the bandwidth is re-assigned to send urgent uplink control messages, for example. However, the loss leads to performance penalties including increased latency/delays in transfer of the application data.